Chief Koval's Blog

Next Week: Our Very Own National Night Out - August 11

August 3, 2016 2:35 PM

Next Thursday night, August 11th, from 5:30pm-8pm, Madison will be celebrating our National Night Out event at Penn Park. This event is for all city residents and we hope to see as many Madisonians as possible attend! There will be a number of activities for children (including a bounce house and dunk tank), public speakers, free food, community booths, police and fire vehicles on display, police horses, a bike rodeo and a candlelight vigil in remembrance of recent victims of violence. Next Thursday is truly shaping up to be a great night out with the community and the police coming together.

National Night Out (NNO) was first established in Philadelphia in 1984 by a man named Matt Peskin. Peskin launched NNO as an event for people and families to gather against crime and violence and to begin taking back their streets and neighborhoods. NNO has grown considerably since that first year and now annually boasts over 16,000 participating communities, with all 50 US states represented! While NNO is typically held on the first Tuesday in August nationally (many of our neighboring communities celebrated last night), some communities choose to celebrate NNO on their own night. Madison is one of those communities.

We are hoping to accomplish a few things next Thursday night...

Take a united stance against violence in our community.

Take pause and recognize the victims of violence in Madison and those from recent tragic incidents around the nation.

Give residents and police an opportunity to recommit to working together. Remember - the police are the public and the public are the police.

Start to improve communication lines between residents and police.

Build upon our relationships of trust among residents, police, city leaders and community partners.

Provide an opportunity for us all to meet one another!

Encourage neighbors to take an active role in reducing crime.We (the police) can't do this kind of work alone.

Give us all an opportunity to reflect on the positive gains that we have made so far in Madison and to energize us all to keep building on those gains!

Special thanks to Alder Sheri Carter, Isadore Knox and Neighborhood Officer Mike Alvarez for all of their National Night Out planning and coordination efforts. The event flyer is attached here:

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